There was dirt on my hands, cuts on my knees.
He offered up a helping hand, or so I thought at least.
He had a smile of silver, that could charm the meanest snake,
And a playful twinkle in his eyes, that said he was safe.
But beneath his thin facade, shadows of the truth ignited deep inside,
To slither along the flickering smoke, and speak of evil and lies.
I was but a child who knew nothing of horror, or of pain;
Nothing of the darkness I had glimpsed lurking there that day.
But I could feel his eyes on my back as I walked away,
And when I glanced over my shoulder, he didn’t look quite the same.
I turned from him quickly, as a chill raced up my spine,
Like a warning to beware, of what was on his mind.
But I didn’t heed the silent words that pleaded to be heard
And the quiet clockwork of fate, clicked and slowly turned.
In the time that followed, the grey of day to day, I couldn’t see,
The evil of hushed footfalls, that were carefully stalking me.
Then he appeared again, beneath the shade of an apple tree.
He smiled his silver smile, and held out an apple like a silent plea.
A crooked finger beckoned for me to take the treat,
The twinkle returning to his eyes as I moved into the shadows at his feet.
He handed me the apple, from which I took a bite,
Without understanding that it would be my last innocent delight.
“I know a game we can play,” he said with a silken tongue.
“A special game that I don’t play with just anyone.”
I tilted my head at his words, then peered down at the fruit in my hand,
And as I stared at its shiny red skin, I wondered what he had planned.
“Are you afraid of the dark, my dear?” he asked. “No,” came my reply.
And with those fatal words of mine, the twinkle brightened in his eyes.
“The game I want to play, is just for me and you.
A game of hide and seek, it is – made just for two.”
He held out his hand, then, like when he had helped me up from my fall,
But this time his hand was cold, as if it were not the same hand at all.
I wrapped my small fingers around the width of his clammy palm,
And he led me away down a deserted road, and into an eerie calm.
Along the path we walked, the birds, they did not sing,
And the animals were silent, except to scatter and flee.
Deeper, he did guide me, winding through grasses that grew waist tall,
To an abandoned shack that whispered of secrets big and small.
And there in the darkness, where the sunlight couldn’t reach,
We played the special game he’d tailored just for me.
The shadows, they then whispered, of my wordless cries;
Of the soundless tears, that left my wide eyes dry.
And the clock of fate still ticked, for every day spent there,
At the hands of the Devil, and his elusive, stalking stare.
Looking back, I don’t know now, why I didn’t see,
The Devil smiling at me from beneath the apple tree.
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